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Preaching against war.

Progress of the Society.

PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY.

The society has enjoyed a slow, though continual advance since its first formation, and it has done more during the past year to promote the cause of peace, than it has ever done in any one year before. They have employed a clergyman, of very respectable talents and standing, as their travelling agent, who has lectured in the principal cities in New England. His object has been to enlighten public opinion by preaching and distributing tracts, rather than the formation of societies. Yet seven new peace societies have been formed, four male and three female, since the last anniversary. But this does not mark the extent of the progress of peace principles. If we look at the change in public opinion since the formation of the Society in 1828, we are astonished at its magnitude; for, although the operations of the society have been noiseless and quiet, they have been, nevertheless, powerful. Eight years ago, seldom did any clergyman lift up his voice, in the pulpit, against the custom of war; now, more than five hundred are pledged to preach at least one sermon a year in favor of peace. Eight years ago, there had been but one ecclesiastical body, in our land, which had passed any censure on war; now, almost every ecclesiastical assembly in New England, and many out of it, have given their testimony against war and in favor of peace. The friends of peace have also raised their own standard much higher than it was eight years ago. Then, few could be found to oppose all war in every shape; now many, if not most of the leaders of the American Peace Society, openly condemn all war, as totally inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel, though it has not been thought expedient to alter the exposition of sentiments with which the society commenced.

Final expectations and ends of the friends of peace.

There are many who, looking at the precepts of the gospel alone, are convinced that the law of love is the only law for a christian, and therefore condemn violence of every kind, as exercised in war, offensive or defensive. These expect to prevail by the gradual influence of the christian religion on the hearts and consciences of men, setting an example themselves of non-resistance to evil, and endeavoring to persuade others, by the force of gospel truth, to follow their example, until wars become unpopular and cease of themselves. Others of the friends of peace do not raise their standard so high, but admit the lawfulness of violence for self-defence, in extreme cases. These appeal chiefly to the philanthropy of our natures, by setting forth the horrors of war; and they endeavor to calculate its enormous expense, and to show the poverty, vice, slavery and degradation which usually accompany it. They expect to convince men of the folly and unreasonableness of war, and place their hopes on a congress of nations, which shall take away all need of appealing to arms to settle national difficulties; and they suppose that public opinion, when properly enlightened, will alone be sufficient to enforce the decrees of any board of judges or arbitrators, appointed by such a congress. Notwithstanding this difference of views, the friends of peace move harmoniously along together, each laboring in his vocation to abolish a direful custom, which has existed from the time of the murder of Abel to the present day, but which, from the prophecies, from past experience of the passing away of other customs, and from the increasing light and knowledge of coming times, we have reason to hope, will be finally abolished.

MONTHLY RECORD.

MEASURING THE EXPANSION OF SOLID BODIES.-This is an object the attainment of which, to a great degree of exactness, has ever been a desideratum. All thermometrical observations are based upon the expansion of matter by heat; but on account of the expansion, in unequal and unascertained rates, of the materials themselves of which thermometers are constructed, together with other causes of irregularity, their indications of the expansion of the body submitted to measurement, whether fluid, as mercury, in the common thermometer, or solid, as in the case of the pyrometer, are far from being accurate, or accordant in different instruments. Lieut. Mather, of the United States Navy, proposes a method of getting rid, in a great measure, of these causes of inaccuracy, in the admeasurement of the expansion of solids, by the following means, as described in the last number of the American Journal of Science:

Two points of comparison are obtained, of an invariable distance, by "making use of two bars of different metals, whose lengths are inversely proportioned to their expansibility, on the principle of the compensating pendulum; so that if both bars be equally heated, the shorter shall expand exactly as much in length as the longer." The object required is now easily seen to be ascertained; for if both bars are placed parallel, and against a fixed support at one end, the other ends will continually be equidistant from each other. Thus a standard is afforded, for comparison of the lengths, at different temperatures, of a solid bar, placed in contact with the apparatus; and by appropriate machinery, the degree of expansion may be measured.

LIMESTONE A Substitute for GYPSUM.-Large quantities of limestone, under the supposition of its being plaster of paris, have been used upon soils, in the western part of New York, with great effect.

DISTANCES OF the Sun and Moon.—At the rate of thirty miles a day, it would require more than twenty years to reach the moon, were it possible to do so, by travelling in a direct line towards it; and the world has not lasted long enough for one of its inhabitants to travel to the sun, at that rate. Even were a railroad constructed through the heavens, a locomotive could not reach the moon in much less than a year, going day and night; and if the voyage to the sun were attempted, the engine would be worn out long before they could arrive there, for the trip would occupy almost four hundred years.

THE AURORA BOREALIS.-The annual report of the Regents of the New York University, made in February, 1836, contains an interesting article on the aurora borealis, by Prof. Joslin, in which he makes the following conclusions, as the result of observations:

"That the temperature of the air is falling, and the atmospheric pressure increasing, on the day in which an aurora

appears.

"That generally after an aurora, the atmospheric pressure falls, the temperature rises, and water, either in the form of rain or snow, falls within two days.

"That the air at the earth's surface, if not saturated with moisture at the time of an aurora, is much nearer than usual to the point of saturation."

He attributes the aurora itself to light produced by the crystallization of aqueous vapor in the upper regions of the atmosphere. "The production of light by crystallization," says he, "is a common occurrence, and has been observed even during the congelation of water." This theory is far more plausible than that of its being caused by the reflection of light from volcanoes, or from the polar ice. The Journal of Science says, "this theory supposes the aurora to be nearer the earth than facts seem to allow; and on this ground principally rests its improbability.

SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE.

BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM.

Prevalence of error.

Fixed laws in nature.

ON no subject does more extensive and enormous error prevail, than exists in regard to human life, health and disease; and yet, almost every person seems to think that there is a kind of intuitive knowledge possessed by all, which enables each one to understand his own constitution, and what is good for him, better than another can teach him.

In regard to almost everything in nature, except human life, and health, and disease, mankind are ready to acknowledge that there are fixed principles and permanent laws, and established order and system.

If we speak of the science of astronomy, and assert that God has constructed the planetary system upon fixed principles, and arranged the several bodies according to precise laws, that the relative size, weight, distance, velocity, and everything else in regard to the whole planetary system, are regulated and governed by the most exact and permanent laws-every enlightened christian and theist will readily admit the truth of the assertion. Or if we affirm, that in the creation of our globe God ordained all things according to fixed principles, and that he has established unchanging laws which govern it in every respect, our affirmation will be promptly acceded to. Or if we speak of the science of chemistry, and declare

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